'She means that much to me': Professional pooper scooper picking up dog waste to see daughter in Winnipeg

A dog waste removal service in Essex County is set to celebrate three years in business next week while looking ahead to the future.

Jeremy Markham started Mr. Pooper Scooper in 2021 as a way to make extra money to be able to afford monthly travel to Winnipeg, Man. in order to see his young daughter Blakely.

“She's my everything. I love her very much,” Markham said from Essex Centre. “I’ve never missed a visit.”

“At the beginning of this it was more or less to put money in my pocket to travel,” Markham explained. “To me it was just whatever cash that I could get. You know, 50 bucks, 100 bucks would just help me when I travel. That was the main focus of all of this. Just putting money in my pocket and being able to see my daughter.”

Markham said the business has blossomed in the time since it began, picking up dog waste and hauling it off in an eco-friendly fashion while amassing more than 150 weekly clients.

But, Markham contends it’s his drive to see his five-year-old daughter that motivates him to do the dirty work many don’t like to do, believing fatherhood is what’s most important.

“I was nervous,” he explained. “I remember calling my mom on March 15 and saying, ‘Mom, I have this idea.’”

He continued, “She was even skeptical at first, you know, are you worried about what people are gonna say like, I thought about it and I thought about my daughter and how much my daughter means to me and at that point, I didn't care. I would have scraped toilets if I had to, because she means that much to me. And in the three four years I've been doing this back and forth, I've never missed a visit.”

Markham told CTV News Windsor that more than a decade ago, his three-month-old son died of a heart condition, empowering him further to be there for his daughter today.

“It's important that that's brought up because I didn't know if I was going to be a dad again and myself, being a dad is super important. If you ask anybody that knows me, it's always been important to me,” he said.

Along with co-owner, Jeff Garton, Mr. Pooper Scooper is exploring renewable energy options, and hopes to further the green-business model by converting the dog waste into nitrogen to be utilized on sod farms.

“To be honest with you,” Garton said, “It is something that that I'm actually proud of, scooping poop.”

“The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has actually just said that dog waste is in the same category as other pollutants like oil spills, pesticides, herbicides which seep into the water, seep into the ground and then affect human health,” he explained. “So by scooping this, we're actually doing a good thing getting rid of some of these problems.”

Garton said they’re even looking into taking the dog waste and bringing it into renewable energy.

“So it's high nitrogen, so when the dog waste off gases, we can then sell it to a sod farm, which they'll end up using it as fertilizer and we want to donate the money we get from that to Second Chance Animal Clinic and the Humane Society of Windsor,” he explained.

He added however that because they have to get a farmer involved the process is tedious.

“We’re giving the fun part of having a dog back to the family. You know, you don't have to scoop up the waste anymore,” said Garton.